The study, the first of its kind, conducted by CIFOR and jointly funded by WWF and CIFOR, utilizes a robust methodology to compare nine FSC certified and nine noncertified forest management units across Gabon, Cameroon and Republic of Congo, to assess whether certification yields social benefits above and beyond noncertified FMUs. Overall, the study firmly and consistently confirms that FSC certification has indeed yielded additional social benefit in the Congo Basin.

Indonesia is one of the major exporters of timber products in the world. It is also one of the key countries with serious illegal logging and deforestation issues. Indonesia developed a timber legality certification system to address this problem. This 2014 report includes an assessment of that system and all of the certificates that had been issued under it at the time of the study.

Synthesizing over 10 years of on-the-ground field observations into an eye-opening report, WWF's Illegal Logging in the Russian Far East: Global Demand and Taiga Destruction highlights a sobering reality: Russia’s forest sector has become deeply criminalized, with poor law enforcement, allowing illegal loggers to plunder valuable timber stocks of oak, ash, elm, and linden with impunity.

The lush rain forests on the Indonesian island of Sumatra suffer from what may be the world’s fastest deforestation rate, threatening the survival of species and causing massive carbon emissions. WWF found that two brands sold in the United States—Paseo and Livi—are made with paper from Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), which is responsible for more forest destruction in Sumatra than any other single company.